


Special Tea

by Squirbi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Menstruation, Protective Toph Beifong, The Author is Trans, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Trans Male Character, Trans Sokka (Avatar), Trans Zuko (Avatar), accidental misgendering, katara as team mom, mentioned - Freeform, nonbinary toph, unsafe binding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27753337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squirbi/pseuds/Squirbi
Summary: Zuko comes out to Toph, who then makes sure that he is taking care of himself properly.Featuring they/them pronouns for Toph and trans Sokka.
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 14
Kudos: 196





	Special Tea

**Author's Note:**

> TW for unsafe binding, mentioned menstruation, and accidental misgendering.

Zuko shifted uncomfortably, his bindings digging into his skin and making it hard for him to breathe. Usually, Uncle would have made him take them off by now, but he didn’t want to come out to the gaang just yet, so he had been wearing them for upwards of twenty hours a day. 

“What’s going on Sparky? You’re breathing weird,” said Toph. 

Toph had been worried about him all day and had dragged him off under the excuse of gathering firewood to prepare for dinner. He was being too quiet and seemed uncomfortable. 

He knew that he had to tell them eventually, and Toph was a good place to start. Toph was like a sister to him, an actual sister and not some crazy person who he happened to be related to. 

He took a deep breath. “Oh, um, my bindings are just annoying me.” 

It was silent for a moment, and Zuko started getting nervous. Maybe this was a mistake. She was going to tell everyone and they were going to hate him and-

“How long have you been wearing them?” 

Out of all the questions he was expecting, this wasn’t one of them. 

“Uh, I don’t know, since this morning?” 

“Well, you wake up super fucking early, so that’s…” Toph’s face scrunched up as she did the math in her head. “That’s over twelve hours!” She grabbed his hand and started dragging him back to the campsite. 

“What are you doing?” Zuko asked. 

“Taking you back to your room so that you can take them off. Do you have any idea how bad that is for your ribs? Have you been wearing them that long every day?” Her voice sounded worried. 

“Yeah, so I’ve been wearing them way more than I should. I’m not really ready to come out to them yet.” 

Toph stopped where she was, turning around to look at Zuko. “I get it, Zuko. I haven’t told anybody else yet, but I think I want to go by they/them pronouns. I understand not being ready to come out, but you can’t put your body through this every day dumbass.” They gave Zuko a quick hug, then started walking again. “C’mon stupid, let’s get back to camp.” 

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ 

Toph kept a close eye on Zuko from then on. They understood Zuko’s desire to stay stealth, but also made sure that he wasn’t hurting himself in pursuit of that goal. The two of them came up with a plan. 

Zuko wouldn’t put on his bindings right away when he woke up. He would go put them on once everybody else started waking up. Toph and Zuko started having lunch in his room so that Zuko could take a break from binding for an hour before putting them back on. Then, he would take them off after dinner, switching to just wearing a thicker cloak that they had found on their last trip to the market. 

Despite helping him stay safe with binding, there was something else that couldn’t be so easily helped. Toph had noticed his absence at breakfast, and after asking around, discovered that nobody had seen him yet. That was worrying, considering that he always woke up hours before everybody. They knocked on Zuko’s door, which was met with Zuko yelling, “Don’t come in!” 

“It’s Toph.” 

They could hear shuffling around, and Zuko opened the door, pulling Toph inside before slamming the door shut. 

“Hey! What was that for?” 

Zuko squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Can you please keep it down? My head is killing me.” 

Toph’s expression morphed from annoyance to worry. They punched him in the shoulder. 

“Ow! What the hell!” 

“Sorry, I’m not great at this kind of stuff. What’s going on? Why weren’t you at breakfast?” 

Zuko turned red and mumbled something under his breath. 

“You’re going to have to speak up Sparky.” 

“Cramps! My cramps are super bad right now!” Zuko snapped. 

“Oh. I’m sorry. How do you usually deal with them?” They asked. 

Zuko sighed and lay back down on the bed. “I don’t usually have to deal with them. Uncle would make me this special tea that made this whole,” he waved at his lower abdomen, “thing go away. I took it with me when I left, but I ran out last week.” 

Toph sat down on the bed next to Zuko. “Do you know how to make it?” 

“Um, kind of? He wrote down the ingredients on the side of the box, but I have no idea what any of it looks like or how to get them.” 

Toph thought for a moment, before snapping their fingers. “I bet Katara knows what they look like! I can bring her the list, and she can get the ingredients!” 

Zuko nodded, and Toph grabbed the box that Zuko held out to them. 

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ 

“So, did you figure out why Zuko is being weird?” asked Katara when Toph came back to the center of camp. 

“Yeah, he really misses his uncle. His uncle used to make this special tea for him, but he ran out. Do you know where to find any of these ingredients?” 

Katara looked at the list and furrowed her brow. “Yeah, I think I can get these for him. Give me a minute.” With that, she started walking back in the direction of the rooms, leaving a very confused Toph alone. 

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ 

Sokka heard a knock on his door. “Come in!” 

Katara walked in, her face set in both determination and confusion. 

“What’s up Katara?” 

Katara walked over to his bag, rifling around until she found the box she was looking for. 

“Uhh, what are you doing?” Sokka asked. 

Katara turned towards her brother, breaking out of the focused trance she had been in. “Oh, uh, I was just going to go foraging, and I figured I could top off your tea.” 

“Oh, okay. Thanks Katara,” he said without a second thought, going back to doodling out some plans he was working on. 

Once back in the common area, Katara got to work brewing a cup of tea for Zuko. 

“That was fast,” said Toph. “So I was thinking, Zuko mentioned that his uncle used to make him jook when he was sic-when he was feeling upset. Do you know how to make it?” 

“What are we making?” asked Aang, who was just coming back from training by himself. 

“Zuko’s feeling a little homesick, so Toph wanted to make him jook. Could you help her-” 

“Them,” Toph cut in. 

“Huh?” Katara looked up from the tea she was making. 

“I want to start using they/them,” Toph explained. 

“Oh, okay. Could you help them get some water from the stream?” Katara corrected herself. 

“Sure, no problem!” said Aang, bouncing on his feet. “C’mon Toph, let’s go!” 

Toph started walking alongside Aang, following him to the water. “You know, there were a lot of nonbinary monks at all the air temples.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, plenty of them were trans, nonbinary, or just queer in general. A lot of our teachings are about focusing on your soul and not your body. People went by what their souls felt like instead of what parts they were given. If somebody’s soul was male, female, or other, that was how they identified, no matter how their physical form appeared.” 

“Oh, that’s kind of beautiful, actually.” 

“Yeah, I wish the rest of the world was as accepting as the Air Nomads.” 

“Me too Twinkle Toes.” 

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ 

About two hours after Toph left, they returned with his tea, jook, and two waterskins. They handed Zuko his tea and one of the waterskins, setting the other waterskin and the jook on the nightstand. 

To Zuko’s surprise, the waterskin Toph handed him was heated. “What’s this for?” he asked. 

“Katara asked me to give to you, she said that it would help with the cramps.” 

Zuko’s body seized up. How did she know? He was grateful anyway, placing the hot waterskin on his abdomen. He was surprised at how instant the relief was. Toph was still standing over him, waiting expectantly. 

“Um, are you going to stand there all day?” 

Toph shifted their weight, earthbending themself a chair to sit on. “I’m going to sit here until I know that you have eaten something and drank some water.” 

Zuko sighed, but was honestly touched by the gesture. He drank his tea, then moved on to the jook and water. 

Once Toph was satisfied that Zuko was properly taking care of himself, they left so that he could rest. 

However, Zuko couldn’t stop thinking about how Katara had known what he needed. He didn’t have to wonder for long, because there was another knock, this time courtesy of the waterbender herself. 

“Hey Zuko, how are you feeling?” 

“A lot better, thank you. So…” he didn’t need to finish his sentence for Katara to know what he was about to ask. 

“I thought I recognized the ingredients, and when I double-checked, I was right. Sokka has to drink the same tea, you know.” 

“Oh, is he…?” 

Katara nodded. “I’m honestly a little surprised you hadn’t figured it out by now. He’s not exactly quiet about it.” 

“Hey, Katara?” 

“Yes, Zuko?” 

“Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> me? projecting on characters? it's more likely than you think. 
> 
> in all seriousness, please bind safely, you could really mess up your chances of top surgery if you bind incorrectly. please stay safe! 
> 
> <3


End file.
